Dropping Knowledge: The Belstaff Trialmaster Jacket

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Nowadays, it seems like you can get wad coated cotton anything, from jackets, to hats, to boots, and I’m pretty sure I saw a pair of wad cotton socks the other day. While the waterproof fabric seems to be everywhere this winter, this week we’re going to take a look at one of the originators of wad cotton outerwear, Belstaff, and their legendary Trialmaster jacket.

Belstaff’s story begins in the English town of Longton, Staffordshire. It was here in 1924 that Eli Belovitch and his son-in-law Harry Grosberg began producing motorcycle jackets for riders throughout England who competed in treacherous off-road races. The early jackets were modest wad cotton silhouettes, able to be tweaked while Belovitch and Grosberg tried to figure out exactly what the cyclists needed. They did finally in 1948, when the duo struck gold, mud-caked, sweat-laden, road-rashed gold with the debut of the Trialmaster, the brand’s most iconic outerwear piece.

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So, what was it about the Trialmaster that made it so significant? To put it simply, it was everything a biker could ever need (except, you know, a bike). Four bellowed pockets, a belted waist, wad cotton exterior, plaid lined interior, throat latch, reinforced shoulders, high arm holes, a zipper and button front closure, and, of course, a crop body to not interfere with the ride itself. To say the Trialmaster was stocked would be a serious understatement. While the jacket was quite literally made for the trails and roads, it wasn’t long before it found an audience off the well-ridden track. Starting with riders across the world, like Steve McQueen (who as rumor has it once famously cancelled a date with Ali MacGraw to re-wax his Belstaff) and Che Guevara during his motorcycle journey across Latin America, the Trialmaster soon became closely linked to the road warrior set. As the years wore on, Belstaff leapt from the track to the sidewalk, becoming a favorite jacket for us slower moving folks that simply dug the jacket’s aesthetic. As Belstaff moves into uncharted territory today, reinventing themselves as a fashion forward house, they fortunately haven’t left the Trialmaster in the dust. In fact, to their credit, they’ve largely left the jacket’s design alone which means you can still pick up a Trialmaster and trail blaze like McQueen and Guevara. Or you can just look like the most badass guy at that cocktail party. The choice is yours.

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